Friday, March 1, 2013

floods

Recently, my home town has been subjected to rain. Not a little bit of rain, not a fair bit of rain, BUT LOTS AND LOTS AND LOTS.
So mcu hso, we were declared a national disaster at one point and flooding was extensive and severe.
We were blessed to not be too badly affected, ( manageable flooding, mostly the backyard thankfully)
but our beaches and local town did not fare as well.

I took the kids to the beach one day last weekend when we had hit day 6 of constant driving rain and this is the sight that we saw.

Huge waves, swollen murky dirty and dangerous seas, and FOAM. It looks cool, its kinda not. Its filthy dirty and very unpredictable.

But we went close enough for long enough to see what it was like.

On the way home, I was listening absentmindedly to the radio and it was giving over and over messages of warnings, dangers, flooding, and even two deaths and I quickly shut the radio off.

Jumeirah, from the back of the car, piped up that she wanted to know more. Instinctively I said no, not wanting her to know of the tragedys of life lost, homes ruined, people trapped and stuck, businesses suffering. But then I realised this was a perfect opportunity TO talk about it.
To talk about how to stay safe in this kind of situation. How we could help someone else. What the community will do now. How in the future, if it happens again, what our own plan as a family would be to stay safe and together.

Normally we shy our kids away from things like this. But in talking about it in the time that it was happening, I felt I equipped them more than frightened them. That I gave us all plans on how to stay safe, something they may need someday.

We drove past the beaches for days, noting the signs, the flags, and how they were still crossed over ( sign of a closed beach) and I showed them why it was totally unsafe to be in the water. Jared began to be my reporter on how the water was going down, that the streets were still full of branches and debris, but that shops were again open.

It was a great time of learning that I hope I dont have to do again soon ( the floods I mean, not the learning)

So take the time, right now, to teach, show and impart what you know so your kids can be safe. Dont hide them from all the disasters of the world. Help them to understand and so they in turn know what to do and how to help :)